RP: Early Morning Breeze

[adelaidelocke]

Participants: Adelaide Locke, Caleah Evans
Location: Racetrack
Time of Day: Morning (7am)
Description: Adelaide is breezing her racehorse
Free to Join?: No. Shoot me a message if you're interested in joining and let me know a bit about your character/style so I can see if we'll mesh well

"Hey! Nope-no! Don't even start with me today!"

Adelaide huffed in frustration as she tightened her grip on the reins, trying to control the high strung Thoroughbred beneath her. He collected himself , head low, before his body tensed and he kicked his legs out. She pulled the reins even tighter and made a mental note to get shorter reins as she nudged him forward.

It was like controlling a tightly coiled spring as he pranced forward, lithe feet delicately touching the track, or so it seemed. From an outsider's point of view, it probably looked more like she was playing with a loaded gun. If they were lucky, maybe they'd be able to breeze in half an hour after Actor let out this unyielding energy from his system.

This was going to be a long day. But that's how she liked it and she had all the time in the world to dedicate to this horse. So they were going to have a nice leisurely breeze, whether he was going to co-operate or not.

^{I don't roleplaying the horse talking/thinking so I'd prefer to not do that... or you can but my horse won't respond back, haha.}

[High Point Stable]

Breeding season was over and Radium was unemployed.

Of all of Caleah's stallions, Radium was the worst when it came to this transition in and out of breeding season. He tended to have the most wild swings in weight and temperament; he was always calmest when he had a job, and when breeding season ended he had the habit of packing on the pounds quickly, though he'd promptly try to lose the weight again when the weather turned chilly.

The remedy for this was exercise. Between every breeding season, Radium was worked as he would have been on the racetrack - he was still stabled in the stallion barn at home, of course, but every morning he would walk across the property, past the mares and foals, just beyond the private competition barn to the synthetic track the young ones were taught on.

Occasionally, however, he and the others were shipped off the property either to get them experience off the property or to log an official workout. Radium, who was used to life at the track, showed his excitement early on with a lot of prancing and headbobbing and dancing as his groom tried to tack him up and get him walking around the shedrow as quick as possible. Said groom was well adjusted to this behavior by now and got the stallion dressed up and out the door in record time. A few laps around the barn later, Caleah appeared at the open end of the barn, ready for a leg up.

The ride to the track was uneventful. Radium pranced the whole way there, as usual, but the groom holding tight to his bit kept him reasonably in line. Thankfully, the track was not exceptionally crowded - that was good. Radium did not do well in crowds. He was difficult to handle at the best of times, let alone when surrounded by other young, high strung, potentially hormonal thoroughbreds. With a quick comment to the groom about the length of the work, Caleah took Radium on her own and casually started trotting him along the outside rail, going counter-clockwise to warm him up. Radium pulled hard on the Dexter ring bit he was equipped with but Caleah did not give even an inch to the high-strung stud, who tossed his head in protest but had no room to do any more than that.

While warming up, Caleah deftly maneuvered her stallion around a jet black colt and his rider. Radium quite predictably called to the colt and tried drifting toward him, but a snarled, "Knock it off," from Caleah and a sudden motion of the whip on his inside made him straighten out again. She looked back at the colt. He was familiar.. Very familiar.. The stripe, no white feet.. Very much like a colt she'd bred.. pay attention/ Snapping back to the task at hand, she stood in the stirrups and let the reins out a little, which was quite enough to get her prized stallion to pick up an enthusiastic canter, still leaning heavily on the bit and expressing his displeasure at being held back.

[adelaidelocke]

The arrival of another horse on the track did not go unnoticed by Actor. The colt's attention was diverted from trying to be as much of a nuisance as possible for Adelaide to the new arrivals. This could either bode well or be disasterous, thought Adelaide silently to herself. Actor's ears flicked as he angled his head as best he could with her tight grip on the reins.

Digging her heels in slightly, she managed to get Actor moving in a smooth trot, stride extending elegantly. Or as elegantly as a tightly wound stallion could look. His line of sight was broken as they moved slowly down the stretch of the track, having been right around what would be the final bend before he had thrown a fit about it.

The new arrivals looked good. The stallion didn't seem to be the slender racehorse that Actor was but he certainly had the muscle tone to prove that he worked out. His colouring was definitely unusual, a sharp contrast to Actor's sleek black coat. But he also seemed to be held back by his rider and Adelaide suppresed an amused smirk.

Actor's sudden attempt to lurch forward brought Adelaide back to reality and back to the fact that he was ready to go. With some reluctance, she loosened her grip a bit and eased herself up in the short stirrups. She wasn't a professional jockey, she was too tall to maintain the weight required so she settled for being a trainer and exercise rider. It was just as well, she was never big on unnecessary stress.

[High Point Stable]

'Held back' was a bit of an understatement. Radium had always been a high strung horse and it had been difficult ever getting anyone else to ride him not only for his disposition but for his strength. Most were not used to a horse who would push into the bit so hard; riding him was a constant battle of tug o' war that he only barely lost. Still, Caleah made it look easy and if it weren't for the stallion's irritated head bobbing and tossing, one might think he were maintaining a steady, controlled canter of his own will. Though he'd had time to mature out of the mold of the gangly, slender racehorse and into the more muscular build of the adult breeding stallion, he maintained the lightfootedness his breed was known for and did not look horribly out of place on the track unless one took into account his color and the thick muscling of the grown stud..

"Get off my hands," Caleah mumbled, raising her inside rein and lifting the stallion's head in the process. He promptly snorted, threw his head downward as much as he could and tossed the smallest buck in the history of the world - which earned him a HARD jab in the ribs. "And you know better, don't be an ass because you have an audience."

She let him go a few strides at the accelerated pace she'd caused by the kick before slowing him back to a prancy, post parade-esque trot. In moments, the black colt she and Radium had passed were approaching again and about to pass; Caleah moved Radium closer to the center of the track to give the other pair more room to move without having the perlino stud within striking range. Part of her motivation for letting them pass was getting a better look at that colt.

( Sorry for the delay. I have spotty access to computer at the moment as I'm house/pet/horse sitting. )

[adelaidelocke]

Adelaide suppressed a smirk as she watched the other rider, her horse strung and ready to go. She didn't seem to be having any of it though and Adelaide could relate; she had worked with her fair share of horses and some could be a royal pai-

Before she could finish that thought, Actor wrenched forward and pulled Adelaide with him. Struggling to maintain her balance, she took in a quick breath to diffuse any panic and relaxed back into the saddle. Hands pulled back once, quickly, and Actor's head was pulled in tightly and she forced him into a tight circle, consistently keeping pressure on the reins.

"Christ, really?"

She muttered under her breath, the colt already working himself up over nothing. As soon as he was prancing in somewhat of a straight line, she let up on the reins and let him transition into a gallop. Some would say she let him win but she rationalized it as warming him up and, rather than dealing with his attitude, she'd let him wear himself out.

They moved smoothly down the track, the gallop was more leisurely than Adelaide would've liked but she wasn't about to push her luck. If they had enough time after all of his antics, she'd do a proper run through. Now on the opposite end of the track and approaching the bend again, Adelaide took a quick look out of the corner of her eye and spotted the pair again. Part of her wondered what they were doing there and the other part questioned the reason for bringing a stud to the track; she rarely saw retired horses unless they had become pony horses and he certainly didn't seem to have the temperament of one.

"Have you got any ideas, Actor?"

Adelaide murmured, the colt's ears flicking back briefly in acknowledgement as she pulled him up slowly, letting him go into a smooth canter as they finished coming around the bend.

( Realized why I had absolutely no muse and it's because I've been playing this character wrong, haha )

[High Point Stable]

Ah.. yes. Caleah knew every one of her horses' gaits from any angle. When the black colt galloped by and proceeded down the track, she realized the gait was familiar; he ran very much like one of hers' had and the longer she watched, the more convinced she became that it was the colt she had sold not so long ago. "You remember him?" she quietly asked Radium. "Pretty sure that's the colt that spent the whole morning taunting you the day he was sold.. Looks good. Not as fit as I'd like to see but then, neither are you.. Fatass."

Thankfully, Radium was unaware of the name calling and did not respond to his rider's observations. Finally giving the stallion more rein, Caleah allowed him to drop his head and start plugging along at a soft, easy hand gallop. He quieted considerably once he was given more room to run; his ears came into a more neutral, thoughtful position and much of his agitated head tossing ceased. He did still lean heavily on her hands, though, which was annoying and somewhat exhausting. She had every intention to keep him going like this but several familiar figures on the outside rail caught her attention. They summoned her over and she obliged, showing the stud to a stop to mingle with the handicappers. Banter was had. By the time Adelaide and Actor were within earshot again, a fourth handicapper would be walking through the gap, onto the track.

"Caleah!"[/i] he called. "That a new one? Who is that?"[/i]
"No, just my old guy Radium," she called back. "Brought some two year olds, figured he'd like to come. I put him in training when breeding season's over, he gets way too fat and wild.."
"Almost looks like he could race again,"[/i] the handicapper replied, coming up to the rail. Caleah just shook her head; Radium seemed on the verge of a tantrum. "You have two year olds here?"[/i]
"Two. Can't miss them. You'll see them. I gotta get going," and with that, she turned her steed back to the track.

By this point, perhaps, the two pairs were not so far apart; the effect of this was that Caleah allowed Radium to drift toward the colt slightly, possibly to chase him, give the stud something to focus on..

( not my best. Written on my phone, in bed. Haha )

[Tori Hardson]

Great story!!! your a great writer